


tempus fugit, non autem memoria

by Vermin_Disciple



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Backstory, Character Study, Gen, POV Female Character, Snippets, Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-30
Updated: 2013-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-16 17:22:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/864632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vermin_Disciple/pseuds/Vermin_Disciple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>This is everything. This is being alive. It’s the happiest moment of her life.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	tempus fugit, non autem memoria

**Author's Note:**

> This is a scene from a fic that I doubt I will ever finish, but since it works well enough as a standalone, I’m posting it now so that the thing doesn’t go entirely to waste, and because the world always needs more Annie Cartwright genfic. Based on Annie’s description of her happiest memory in S1E06.

It’s 1968. She’s 21 and the world is changing around her. Even Manchester, snarling like an old guard dog and digging its claws into the earth, is feeling the shockwaves. 

She’s 21 and her own world is changing. It’s graduation day, and Manchester has never looked so small.

The ceremony is claustrophobic and she gets out of it, out of there, out of her heavy robes as quickly as she can. 

She and her mates wind up on a bridge, their legs dangling over the water below and a joint working its way between them. The boy she’s sort of with is trying to seduce her with wine and his formidable knowledge of the complete works of Carl Gustav Jung. It’s awkward in a way that isn’t quite charming, but she thinks she might sleep with him anyway, just because she can. 

(Then again, perhaps not. She doesn’t have anything to prove.) 

“Can we ever truly know when we’ve stopped dreaming? How do you know that you’re awake? How do you know that you’re alive?” 

Annie takes his wine away and swallows down a mouthful. 

“Let’s find out,” she says, and stands up, shedding her blouse and climbing onto the railing. She hears whistling behind her as she unhooks her bra, but she doesn’t turn around. This is her moment, not theirs. 

She’s still got the bottle of wine in her hand when she jumps. It’s twenty feet down, a distance which is much shorter than it looks. 

It hurts. She hits the surface hard and it’s like ice on her bare skin and she accidentally inhales some of it, but as she’s there, spluttering and coughing and kicking to stay afloat, she knows the answer. 

This is everything. This is being alive. 

It’s the happiest moment of her life. 

_Finis_


End file.
